Media content item generation for a content sharing platform

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for receiving location information for source data associated with a publisher identifier and determining a set of selectors associated with the publisher identifier, each selector comprising specified content to extract from the source data and one or more rules for extracting the specified content. The systems and method further provided for extracting from the source data, specified content for each selector of at least a subset of the set of selectors based on the one or more rules specified in each selector of the at least subset of the set of selectors, determining a first template to use to generate the media content item, the first template comprising regions corresponding to one or more selectors, populating each region of the first template using specified content for the corresponding selector and generating the media content item from the populated first template.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/227,616, filed on Dec. 20, 2018.

BACKGROUND

A content sharing platform may receive millions of messages from usersdesiring to share media content such as audio, images, and video betweenuser devices (e.g., mobile devices, personal computers, etc.). The mediacontent of these messages may be associated with a common geolocation, acommon time period, a common event, and so forth. The users of thecontent sharing platform may comprise a variety of differentdemographics (e.g., age, gender, location), may have various preferencesfor content, may have various levels of social activity, and so forth.Some users of the content sharing platform may include publishers ofmedia content (e.g., news, sports, entertainment publishers) that desireto publish media content to be shared to other users of the contentsharing platform.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various ones of the appended drawings merely illustrate exampleembodiments of the present disclosure and should not be considered aslimiting its scope.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example messaging system forexchanging data (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network,according to some example embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating further details regarding themessaging system, according to some example embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a method, according tosome example embodiments.

FIGS. 4-8 illustrate example graphical user interfaces, according tosome example embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a method, according tosome example embodiments.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a softwarearchitecture that may be installed on a machine, according to someexample embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine, in theform of a computer system, within which a set of instructions may beexecuted for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, according to an example embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods described herein relate to generating and publishingmedia content in a content sharing platform. Conventionally, publishersof media content, such as news media companies, entertainment companies,and the like, employ large teams of highly skilled people to developmedia content items (e.g., magazines, newspapers, articles,advertisements, etc.). For example, such entities may hire graphicaldesigners, illustrators, animators, video editors, and so forth. In thepre-Internet days, such entities typically had just one primary mediaformat (e.g., paper publications) and one primary publication channel(e.g., postal delivery or in-store purchase). Today, with the widevariety of media platforms, such as the Internet and numerous contentsharing platforms (e.g., Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Yelp, etc.), it isno longer feasible to hire such extensive teams for each different mediaplatform, each with its own technical requirements for publishingcontent. For example, each media platform may require differenttechnical tools, technical formats for media and data to be published,different timelines, and so forth. Moreover, each media platform mayrequire different schedules for publishing media content, and it isoften expected that content be updated at least once a day if not morefrequently.

Example embodiments provide a media content publishing platform to allowa publisher to automatically generate media content based on contentalready created by the publisher. For example, a publisher may create anarticle or news feed for a website on the Internet. Example embodimentsutilize the source data generated for this content to automaticallygenerate media content for a content sharing platform.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a networked system 100 (e.g., amessaging system) for exchanging data (e.g., messages and associatedcontent) over a network. In one example, the networked system 100 is acontent sharing platform.

The networked system 100 includes multiple client devices 110, each ofwhich hosts a number of client applications 114. Each client application114 is communicatively coupled to other instances of the clientapplication 114 and a server system 108 via a network 104.

The client device 110 may comprise, but is not limited to, a mobilephone, desktop computer, laptop, portable digital assistant (PDA), smartphone, tablet, ultrabook, netbook, laptop, multi-processor system,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronic system, gameconsole, set-top box, computer in a vehicle, wearable device, or anyother communication device that a user may utilize to access thenetworked system 100. In some embodiments, the client device 110 maycomprise a display module (not shown) to display information (e.g., inthe form of user interfaces). In further embodiments, the client device110 may comprise one or more of touch screens, accelerometers,gyroscopes, cameras, microphones, global positioning system (GPS)devices, and so forth.

The client device 110 may be a device of a user that is used to createmedia content items such as video, images (e.g., photographs), andaudio, and to send and receive messages containing such media contentitems, text, and so forth, to and from other users. The client device110 may be a device of a user that is used to create and edit mediaoverlays and create and access a plurality of media collections. Theclient device 110 may be a device of a user that is user to generatemedia content items for publishers of content, as explained in furtherdetail below.

One or more users may be a person, a machine, or other means ofinteracting with the client device 110. In example embodiments, the usermay not be part of the system 100, but may interact with the system 100via the client device 110 or other means. For instance, the user mayprovide input (e.g., touch screen input or alphanumeric input) to theclient device 110, and the input may be communicated to other entitiesin the system 100 (e.g., third-party servers, server system 108, etc.)via the network 104. In this instance, the other entities in the system100, in response to receiving the input from the user, may communicateinformation to the client device 110 via the network 104 to be presentedto the user. In this way, the user may interact with the variousentities in the system 100 using the client device 110.

The system 100 may further include the network 104. One or more portionsof the network 104 may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, avirtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wirelessLAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), ametropolitan area network (MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion ofthe public switched telephone network (PSTN), a cellular telephonenetwork, a wireless network, a WI-FI network, a WiMax network, anothertype of network, or a combination of two or more such networks.

The client device 110 may access the various data and applicationsprovided by other entities in the system 100 via a web client (e.g., abrowser, such as the Internet Explorer® browser developed by Microsoft®Corporation of Redmond, Wash. State) or one or more client applications114. The client device 110 may include one or more client applications114 (also referred to as “apps”) such as, but not limited to, a webbrowser, a messaging application, an electronic mail (email)application, an e-commerce site application, a mapping or locationapplication, a media overlay application, an interactive messagingapplication, a media content generation and publishing application, andthe like.

In some embodiments, one or more client applications 114 may be includedin a given one of the client devices 110, and configured to locallyprovide the user interface and at least some functionalities, with theclient application 114 configured to communicate with other entities inthe system 100 (e.g., third-party servers, server system 108, etc.), onan as-needed basis, for data and/or processing capabilities not locallyavailable (e.g., to process user queries, to authenticate a user, toverify a method of payment, etc.). Conversely, one or more clientapplications 114 may not be included in the client device 110, and thenthe client device 110 may use its web browser to access the one or moreapplications hosted on other entities in the system 100 (e.g.,third-party servers, server system 108, etc.).

In one example, a client application 114 may be a messaging applicationthat allows a user to take a photograph or video, add a caption to orotherwise edit the photograph or video, and then send the photograph orvideo to another user. In one example, the message may be ephemeral andbe removed from a receiving user device after viewing or after apredetermined amount of time (e.g., 10 seconds, 24 hours, etc.). Anephemeral message refers to a message that is accessible for atime-limited duration. An ephemeral message may be a text, an image, avideo, and other such content that may be stitched together inaccordance with embodiments described herein. The access time for theephemeral message may be set by the message sender. Alternatively, theaccess time may be a default setting or a setting specified by therecipient. Regardless of the setting technique, the message istransitory.

The messaging application may further allow a user to create a galleryor message collection (also referred to herein as a “media collection”).A gallery may be a collection of photos and videos which may be viewedby other users “following” the user's gallery (e.g., subscribed to viewand receive updates in the user's gallery). In one example, the gallerymay also be ephemeral (e.g., lasting 24 hours, lasting for a duration ofan event (e.g., during a music concert, sporting event, etc.), orlasting another predetermined time).

An ephemeral message may be associated with a message durationparameter, the value of which determines an amount of time that theephemeral message will be displayed to a receiving user of the ephemeralmessage by the client application 114. The ephemeral message may befurther associated with a message receiver identifier and a messagetimer. The message timer may be responsible for determining the amountof time the ephemeral message is shown to a particular receiving useridentified by the message receiver identifier. For example, theephemeral message may only be shown to the relevant receiving user for atime period determined by the value of the message duration parameter.

In another example, the messaging application may allow a user to storephotographs and videos and create a gallery that is not ephemeral andthat can be sent to other users. For example, a user may assemblephotographs and videos from a recent vacation to share with friends andfamily.

In another example, the client application 114 may be a media publishingapplication (also referred to herein as a “media content generating andpublishing application) that allows a user to generate and publish mediacontent items. For example, a user can create a message or media contentitem comprising the latest news for a particular sports team, politics,entertainment, a particular product or service, an advertisement, or thelike. In one example, the media content item can be part of a “channel”in a content sharing platform for the particular publisher. A mediacontent item may comprise one or more of images, video, text, or thelike.

In one example, the media content item created by the publisher may beephemeral and be removed from a receiving user device after viewing orafter a predetermined amount of time (e.g., 10 seconds, 24 hours, etc.).As explained above, an ephemeral media content item or message refers toa message that is accessible for a time-limited duration. An ephemeralmessage may be a text, an image, a video, and other such content thatmay be stitched together in accordance with embodiments describedherein. The access time for the ephemeral message may be set by themessage sender. Alternatively, the access time may be a default settingor a setting specified by the publisher or recipient. Regardless of thesetting technique, the message is transitory.

The media publishing application may further allow a user to create agallery or message collection (also referred to herein as a “mediacollection”) comprising a plurality of media content items (e.g., basedon an RSS or Atom feed as described below). A media collection may be acollection of photos and videos which may be viewed by other users“following” the publishers media collection or channel (e.g., subscribedto view and receive updates in the publisher's media collection orchannel). In one example, the media collection may also be ephemeral(e.g., lasting 24 hours, lasting for a duration of an event (e.g.,during a music concert, sporting event, etc.), or lasting anotherpredetermined time).

As explained above, an ephemeral message or media content item may beassociated with a message duration parameter, the value of whichdetermines an amount of time that the ephemeral message will bedisplayed to a receiving user of the ephemeral message by the clientapplication 114. The ephemeral message may be further associated with amessage receiver identifier and a message timer. The message timer maybe responsible for determining the amount of time the ephemeral messageis shown to a particular receiving user identified by the messagereceiver identifier. For example, the ephemeral message may only beshown to the relevant receiving user for a time period determined by thevalue of the message duration parameter.

The server system 108 may provide server-side functionality via thenetwork 104 (e.g., the Internet or a wide area network (WAN)) to one ormore client devices 110 and/or one or more third-party servers (notshown). The server system 108 may include an application programminginterface (API) server 102, an application server 112, a messagingapplication server 116, a media content processing system 118, a socialnetwork system 122, and a media content publishing system 128, which maybe communicatively coupled with each other and with one or more datastorage(s), such as database(s) 120.

The server system 108 may be a cloud-computing environment, according tosome example embodiments. The server system 108, and any serversassociated with the server system 108, may be associated with acloud-based application, in one example embodiment.

The one or more database(s) 120 may be storage devices that storeinformation such as untreated media content, original media content fromusers (e.g., high-quality media content), processed media content (e.g.,media content that is formatted for sharing with client devices 110 andviewing on client devices 110), context data related to a media contentitem, context data related to a user device (e.g., computing or clientdevice 110), media overlays, media overlay smart widgets or smartelements, user data, user device information, media content (e.g., videoand images), media content data (e.g., data associated with video andimages), computing device context data, serialized data, session dataitems, user profile data, publisher profile data, selectors and selectordata, creative templates and associated data, generated media contentitems, and so forth. The one or more databases 120 may further storeinformation related to third-party servers, third-party applications,client devices 110, client applications 114, users, and so forth.

The one or more database(s) 120 may include cloud-based storage externalto the server system 108 (e.g., hosted by one or more third-partyentities external to the server system 108). While the storage devicesare shown as database(s) 120, it is to be understood that the system 100may access and store data in storage devices such as databases 120, blobstorages, and other types of storage methods.

The system 100 may further include one or more third-party servers (notshown). The one or more third-party servers may include one or morethird-party application(s). The one or more third-party application(s),executing on the third-party server(s), may interact with the serversystem 108 via the API server 102 via a programmatic interface providedby the API server 102. For example, one or more of the third-partyapplications may request and utilize information from the server system108 via the API server 102 to support one or more features or functionson a website hosted by a third party or an application hosted by thethird party. The third-party website or application, for example, mayprovide functionality that is supported by relevant functionality anddata in the server system 108.

Accordingly, each client application 114 is able to communicate andexchange data with other client applications 114 and with the serversystem 108 via the network 104. The data exchanged between clientapplications 114, and between a client application 114 and the serversystem 108, includes functions (e.g., commands to invoke functions) aswell as payload data (e.g., text, audio, video, or other multimediadata).

The server system 108 provides server-side functionality via the network104 to a particular client application 114. While certain functions ofthe system 100 are described herein as being performed by either aclient application 114 or the server system 108, it will be appreciatedthat the location of certain functionality either within the clientapplication 114 or within the server system 108 is a design choice. Forexample, it may be technically preferable to initially deploy certaintechnology and functionality within the server system 108, but to latermigrate this technology and functionality to the client application 114where a client device 110 has a sufficient processing capacity.

The server system 108 supports various services and operations that areprovided to the client application 114. Such operations includetransmitting data to, receiving data from, and processing data generatedby the client application 114. This data may include message content,client device information, geolocation information, media annotation andoverlays, message content persistence conditions, social networkinformation, live event information, date and time stamps, media content(e.g., video and images), media content data (e.g., data associated withvideo and images), media content items, and user data, as examples. Dataexchanges within the networked system 100 are invoked and controlledthrough functions available via user interfaces (UIs) of the clientapplication 114.

In the server system 108, the API server 102 is coupled to, and providesa programmatic interface to, the application server 112. The applicationserver 112 is communicatively coupled to a database server 124, whichfacilitates access to the one or more database(s) 120 in which is storeddata associated with messages processed by the application server 112.

The API server 102 receives and transmits message data (e.g., commandsand message payloads) between the client device 110 and the applicationserver 112. Specifically, the API server 102 provides a set ofinterfaces (e.g., routines and protocols) that can be called or queriedby the client application 114 in order to invoke functionality of theapplication server 112. The API server 102 exposes various functionssupported by the application server 112, including account registration;login functionality; the sending of messages, via the application server112, from a particular client application 114 to another clientapplication 114; the sending of media files (e.g., images or video) froma client application 114 to the messaging application server 116, forpossible access by another client application 114; the setting of acollection of media data (e.g., a gallery, story, message collection, ormedia collection); the retrieval of such collections; the retrieval of alist of friends of a user of a client device 110; the retrieval ofmessages and content; the adding of friends to and deletion of friendsfrom a social graph; the location of friends within a social graph;opening an application event (e.g., relating to the client application114); generating and publishing media content items; and so forth.

The application server 112 hosts a number of applications andsubsystems, including the messaging application server 116, the mediacontent processing system 118, the social network system 122, and themedia content publishing system 128. The messaging application server116 implements a number of message processing technologies andfunctions, particularly related to the aggregation and other processingof content (e.g., textual and multimedia content) included in messagesreceived from multiple instances of the client application 114. The textand media content from multiple sources may be aggregated intocollections of content (e.g., called stories, galleries, or mediacollections). These collections are then made available, by themessaging application server 116, to the client application 114. Otherprocessor- and memory-intensive processing of data may also be performedserver-side by the messaging application server 116, in view of thehardware requirements for such processing.

The application server 112 also includes the media content processingsystem 118, which is dedicated to performing various media contentprocessing operations, typically with respect to images or videoreceived within the payload of a message at the messaging applicationserver 116. The media content processing system 118 may access one ormore data storages (e.g., database(s) 120) to retrieve stored data touse in processing media content and to store results of processed mediacontent.

The social network system 122 supports various social networkingfunctions and services, and makes these functions and services availableto the messaging application server 116. To this end, the social networksystem 122 maintains and accesses an entity graph within the database120. Examples of functions and services supported by the social networksystem 122 include the identification of other users of the networkedsystem 100 with whom a particular user has relationships or whom theparticular user is “following,” and also the identification of otherentities and interests of a particular user.

The messaging application server 116 may be responsible for generationand delivery of messages between users of client devices 110. Themessaging application server 116 may utilize any one of a number ofmessage delivery networks and platforms to deliver messages to users.For example, the messaging application server 116 may deliver messagesusing electronic mail (email), instant message (IM), Short MessageService (SMS), text, facsimile, or voice (e.g., Voice over IP (VoIP))messages via wired networks (e.g., the Internet), plain old telephoneservice (POTS), or wireless networks (e.g., mobile, cellular, WIFI, LongTerm Evolution (LTE), or Bluetooth).

The media content publishing system 128 supports various functionalityrelated to generating and publishing media content items, as describedin further detail below. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating furtherdetails of the media content publishing system 128, according to someexample embodiments. In this example, the media content publishingsystem 128 comprises a publisher interface 202, a content extractionservice 204, an automatic media content creation service 206, and one ormore databases 208 that stores selectors and related data, and database210 that stores templates, media, creatives (e.g., media content items),and related data. The databases 208 and 210 are shown as separatedatabases in the example in FIG. 2; however, it is to be understood thatthe databases 208 and 210 could be one database or two or moredatabases.

The publisher interface 202 is a user interface for generating mediacontent items. In one example, the publisher interface 202 is part of amedia publishing application that allows users to generate and publishmedia content (e.g., messages or media content items). In one example,the publisher interface 202 resides in the media content publishingsystem 128 and is accessed via one or more client devices 110. Inanother example, the publisher interface 202 resides on one or moreclient devices 110, and functionality related to the media publishingapplication is accessed via the media content publishing system 128. Inyet another example, some functionality of the publisher interface 202may reside on one or more client devices 110, and some of thefunctionality of the publisher interface 202 may reside on the mediacontent publishing system 128. The publisher interface 202 provides auser interface for a user to generate media content, and also provideslocation information for source data, one or more selectors, and relateddata to the content extraction service 204. The location informationindicates an online location at which the source data is available orthe online or network location at which the source data is published.

The content extraction service 204 is responsible for receiving andusing the location information to access source data and parse thesource data to generate specified content for the one or more selectors,according to rules associated with each selector, as described infurther detail below. The content extraction service 204 provides thespecified content to the publisher interface 202 and/or the automaticmedia content creation service 206.

The automatic media content creation service 206 is responsible forgenerating templates, populating templates with the specified contentfrom the content extraction service 204, providing generated andpopulated templates to the publisher interface 202, and so forth asdescribed in further detail below. The automatic media content creationservice 206 is also responsible for creating all media fields needed tosatisfy a template.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a method 300 forgenerating a media content item for publication, according to someexample embodiments. For illustrative purposes, the method 300 isdescribed with respect to the networked system 100 of FIG. 1 and theblock diagram of FIG. 2. It is to be understood that the method 300 maybe practiced with other system configurations in other embodiments.

In operation 302, a server system (e.g., server system 108 or mediacontent publishing system 128) receives location information for sourcedata associated with a publisher identifier. In one example, locationinformation comprises a mechanism by which the source data is provided(e.g., by a publisher server system or computing device) to the serversystem. For example, location information can be a URL at which sourcedata is pulled by the server system, an API for external system (e.g., apublisher server system or computing device) to push source data, or thelike. In one example, the source data is a form of data such as a JSONfile, a web page, an RSS feed, an Atom feed, a product catalog, and soforth.

In one example, source data is an RSS or Atom feed (which is astructured data file), and this source data may be specified by a URLfor the feed file. In another example, the source data is a webpage andthis source data may be specified by a URL for the webpage. In yetanother example, the source data is a product catalog and this sourcedata is provided via a third-party system enabled by an externallyaccessible API.

As shown in FIG. 4 at operation 402, a client device 110 provides, topublisher interface 202, a URL for accessing data (e.g., one or morewebsites) to use for automatically generating a media content item (alsoreferred to herein as a “creative”). In other examples, other locationinformation may be provided for the source data.

The source data may be a webpage (e.g., an article or productinformation), in one example. The source data may comprise structuredand/or unstructured data. Structured data is information comprising ahigh degree of organization. For example, structured data comprisesdiscretely defined fields (e.g., a title field, an author field, animage field, a video field, etc.). Unstructured data, on the other hand,lacks any specified structure.

In one example, the location information is provided via a mediapublishing application via a client device 110. For example, a user(e.g., a creator and/or publisher of content) may access a mediapublishing application via client device 110 to create a media contentitem (also referred to herein as a “creative”). FIG. 5 illustrates anexample display 500 illustrating a user interface of a media publishingapplication. The user interface may allow a user to create a mediacontent item from scratch by providing an option 504 to add media and anoption to use creative tools 506. The media publishing application mayalso allow a user to have a media content item to be automaticallygenerated based on a website, or a data fee (e.g., RSS or Atom feed),that has already been created by the user, via a web import option 502.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example display 600 illustrating the userinterface of the media publishing application after a user has selectedthe web import option 502. In user interface, an input field 602 isprovided for a user to enter a URL (in this example) to import contentfrom a website (e.g., source data). The user may then start the processof importing data from the website by selecting the import option 604.The URL is then sent by the client device 110 to the server system. Inone example, a publisher identifier (e.g., Org Id in operation 404 ofFIG. 4) is also provided to the server system. For example, thecomputing device may also send a publisher identifier along with the URLto the server system. In another example, the server system determinesthe publisher identifier based on the URL or other data (e.g., userdata, login information, etc.) provided via the publisher interface 202.

Returning to FIG. 3, in operation 304, the server system determines aset of selectors associated with the publisher identifier. A selector isa component or entity that defines what data (e.g., specified data) toextract from source data (e.g., from a webpage associated with the URLor one or more URLs listed in an RSS or Atom feed). Accordingly, eachselector or the set of selectors comprises specified content to extractfrom the source data and one or more rules for extracting the specifiedcontent. For example, the set of selectors may comprise a headlineselector, an author selector, an image selector, a video selector, andso forth. A title selector may specify a title for the media contentitem and rules for how to find the title information within the sourcedata. An author selector may specify the author for the source data andrules for how to find the author information within the source data. Animage selector and a video selector may specify an image and a video forthe media content item and rules for how to find the image and videowithin the source data.

Using a specific example, a selector may be used for extracting a titlefrom a webpage. Two rules may be provided in the selector that describespaths into the document (webpage) for finding the title. The first rulemay be “h2.title” which looks for elements of type h2 with class name“title.” The second rule may be “article header h1” which looks for anelement of type h1 that is contained within an element of type headerthat is contained within an element of type article.

Selectors may include global selectors and organization-specificselectors. Global selectors are general or commonly used selectors thatare used to identify things like the title, description, or primaryimage of a webpage or document (e.g., source data). Global selectors maybe used across publishers (e.g., regardless of a publisher identifier).Global selectors may be created by generating a global list of namedtemplate fields available (e.g., title/headline, description/body,background image/video, etc.) and associating each named field anextensible set of rules for extracting content from source data (e.g.,webpage or other document) for the named field.

Organization-specific selectors may be publisher-specific. For example,publishers may have non-standard webpage or document structure (e.g.,source data) or have unique data available somewhere on the page thatthey want returned as structured data. Organization-specific selectorscan be defined per organization (e.g., per publisher and associated witha publisher identifier). A user associated with the organization orpublisher can define one or more organization-specific selectors, forexample, via a media content generation application and save theorganization-specific selectors. The defined organization selectors aresent by the computing device (e.g., client device 110) to the serversystem and the server system stores them in one or more databases (e.g.,database 120 or database 208).

In one example, a selector can be associated with a specific data type.For example, a selector can be associated with a text, image, or mediadata type.

The server system may access one or more databases (e.g., database(s)120, selectors database 208) to determine which selectors, of aplurality of selectors, are associated with the publisher identifier. Inone example, the set of selectors are provided to the publisherinterface 202 at operation 406, as shown in FIG. 4. In operation 408,the publisher interface 202 provides the URL and selectors to thecontent extraction service 204.

In operation 306 of FIG. 3, the server system accesses the source datausing the location information. For example, the server system uses theURL to access the webpage. In operation 308, the server system (e.g.,via content extraction service 204) extracts specified content for eachselector from the source data. For example, for each selector in the setof selectors associated with the publisher identifier, the server systemextracts the specified content using the rules specified in eachselector (e.g., a title, an image, a video, an author, etc.). Forexample, the server system may parse the webpage to determine thespecified content using the one or more rules specified in the selector.In one example, the specified content is stored as structured dataassociated with the selector.

It is possible that the server system will not be able to find all thespecified data for each of the selectors associated with the publisheridentifier. For example, a webpage may comprise a title, an image, avideo, but not an author. Thus, the server system would only be able topopulate a subset of the selectors with structured data from thewebsite. In operation 410 of FIG. 4, the content extraction service 204returns the structured data for the selectors for which it found thespecified data, to the publisher interface 202. In one example, thecontent extracted is added to the user's media library (e.g., a medialibrary associated with a publisher identifier).

In operation 310 of FIG. 3, the server system populates a template usingthe specified content of the selectors. For example, the server systemretrieves a plurality of templates for generating a media content item.The plurality of templates may comprise templates for any publisher,templates specific to a publisher identifier, or a combination of thetwo. For example, the server system may access one or more databases(e.g., databases 120 and/or 210) that stores templates and retrieve thetemplates associated with the publisher identifier and/or globaltemplates not specific to any particular publisher identifier.

In one example embodiment, the server system determines one template ofthe plurality of templates to use to generate a media content item. Inone example, the server system determines the template based onreceiving a selection of the template from the plurality of templates.For example, the publisher interface 202 provides a template picker userinterface at operation 412 of FIG. 4 and receives a selected templateidentifier at operation 414. FIG. 7 illustrates an example display 700that provides an option 702 to select a template, from a plurality oftemplates 704, to create a media content item (or “Creative”). In oneexample, all available templates are displayed in the display 700. Inanother example, only the relevant templates are displayed in thedisplay 700 (e.g., templates that comprise regions associated with theselectors for which specified content was extracted from the sourcedata). In this example, templates with a video field or region would notbe displayed if the extracted content does not include any video media,or a slideshow template with three background images would not bedisplayed unless the provided content has at least three validbackground images, as examples. In yet another example, the templatesare ranked and displayed in the order of most relevant to leastrelevant.

Each template has one or more layers or regions associated with one ormore selectors. For example, template 706 comprises a title region 708,an image region 710, and a description region 712, which may berespectively associated with a title selector, an image selector, and adescription selector. In this example, the publisher interface 202provides the selected template identifier and the structured data to theautomatic media content creation service 206 to generate the mediacontent item, as shown in operation 416 of FIG. 4.

In another example, the server system determines the one template of theplurality of templates automatically based on determining whichtemplates comprise selectors corresponding to the specified content inthe subset of the set of selectors. For example, the specified contentmay comprise a title, an author, and a video. The server systemdetermines which templates comprise a title, an author, and a video andselects one template from those templates that comprise those regions.For example, since the server system does not have content for an imageor an author, it may not want to choose templates that have an authorregion. Additionally, or in the alternative, the server system maydetermine the template of the plurality of templates based on popularityof the templates, relevancy of the template, and the like. In oneexample, each template has an associated template identifier.

The server system retrieves the template based on the templateidentifier. For example, in operation 418 of FIG. 4, the automatic mediacontent creation service 206 uses the template identifier (ID) to accessone or more databases 210 that comprise template data and retrieves thetemplate associated with the template ID in operation 420. The automaticmedia content creation service 206 may also retrieve any media data forthe template (e.g., images, video, audio, text), as shown in operation422. For example, a template may comprise media data such as images(e.g., logos and stock images), stock video, animation, and so forth.For example, a template may comprise a logo for an entity associatedwith the publisher identifier, an image or animation that swooshes infrom a certain angle, and so forth. This media data may each beassociated with stored entity identifiers (IDs) that are provided to theautomatic media content creation service 206 at operation 424.

The server system populates each region of the template using the mediadata and the specified content for the selector associated with eachregion. For example, if a template has a title region and an imageregion, the server system maps the title region with the specifiedcontent of the title selector and the image region with the specifiedcontent of the image selector. Other regions that are not associatedwith a selector (or for which there is no specified data available) maybe populated with the media data (or left blank).

In one example, for layers or regions that contain media, such as image,video, or audio, the media objects will be automatically created. Forexample, the media objects will be downloaded from their sourcelocation, uploaded and stored by the server system, and associated witha media entity that can be assigned to a new media content item. Forregions that contain text, the properly sized and wrapped text can beconverted into a graphical format (e.g., Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG),raster-based graphic format, or other vector graphic format) andassigned to the regions in which it is used. In one example, multipleregions of a template or media content item can have the same sourceinput. For example, Image 1 and Image 2 can both be mapped to a singleimage field in the structured data extracted from the source data.

Returning to FIG. 3, in operation 312, the server system generates amedia content item from the populated template. For example, the mediacontent item is generated by transcoding the template layers into asingle video file. In one example, the server system also defines astructured data record of the original creative layers, files, and anymodifications/edits/transformations. This structured data record can beused to modify the media content item in the future.

The media content item is then stored in one or more databases 210, asshown in operation 426 of FIG. 4, and the saved media content item isprovided to the automatic media content creation service 206, as shownin operation 428, which provides the media content item to the publisherinterface 202, as shown in operation 430. In this way the server systemcauses the media content item to be displayed on a client device 110.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example display 800 that displays the generatedmedia content item 802. In this example, the media content item 802comprises an image, a subject 806, and a title 808. The media contentitem 802 may also provide an option 810 to access the full article orcontent related to the media content item 802. For example, if a userswipes up on option 810, the display 800 displays the full article about“There's No Escaping Drake On The Internet.” The full article portion ofthe media content item 802 may be populated using the source data (e.g.,to display the entire article of the source data). The display 800 mayfurther provide options 812 for editing media content items by allowingthe options 812 to edit various layers or regions of the media contentitem (e.g., headline, media 1, media 2, media 3).

Once any edits have been made to the media content item (e.g., to themedia content item 802), the computing device (e.g., client device 110)sends the final media content item to the server system. The serversystem saves the final media content item. For example, the serversystem receives updated content for at least one region of the generatedmedia content item from the computing device and stores the updatedcontent. In another example, no updates are made to the media contentitem and the generated media content item is stored as is by the serversystem. In yet another example, the media content item is not displayedon a client device but is instead automatically published to a contentsharing platform once it is generated.

In one example, a second template can be selected to generate a secondmedia content item. The server system may determine the second template(e.g., receive a selection of a second template), populate each regionof the second template using specified content for the selectorassociated with each region of the template, as described above. Theserver system can use updated content for the at least one region topopulate the at least one region of the second template. The serversystem can generate a second media content item from the populatedsecond template and cause display of the generated second media contentitem on the computing device, as explained above. In this way, changesmade to one template can be used to populate a second template so that auser does not need to make the change again.

The server system can publish the generated media content item to acontent sharing platform. For example, the server system can cause thegenerated media content item to be accessible to one or more users via amessaging application or webpage accessible via a client device. In thisway, a plurality of users can view and interact with the generated mediacontent item.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a method 900 forgenerating a media content item for publication, according to someexample embodiments. For illustrative purposes, the method 900 isdescribed with respect to the networked system 100 of FIG. 1 and theblock diagram of FIG. 2. It is to be understood that the method 900 maybe practiced with other system configurations in other embodiments.

In operation 902, a server system (e.g., server system 108 or mediacontent publishing system 128) receives location information foraccessing a list of location data for a plurality of source dataassociated with a publisher identifier. In this example, the locationinformation is a URL or other location information for an RSS feed orAtom feed, or other type of feed. RSS (Rich Site Summary or ReallySimple Syndication) or Atom is a format that provides a means fortransmitting and updating news (or other media) in an automated way. Forexample, publishers (e.g., news websites) can publish an RSS feed, whichcan be regularly updated with the latest headlines and/or articles. TheRSS or Atom feed can be in XML format, in one example. An RSS or Atom“feed” is essentially a list of articles or content in a standardized,machine-readable format. The feed comprises entries, such as links(e.g., URLs) to websites or links to content on a website, along withvarious metadata. In this example, location data is a URL and sourcedata is associated with a webpage. Example embodiments provide foratomically generating media content items for each of the entries in anRSS or Atom feed. Example embodiments further provide for generating amedia collection comprising media content items generated from an RSS orAtom feed.

As described above with respect to operation 302 of FIG. 3, the serversystem can receive location information for accessing the list oflocation data for a plurality of source data associated with a publisheridentifier, via a publisher interface 202. For example, as shown in FIG.4 at operation 402, a client device 110 provides, to publisher interface202, a URL or RSS/Atom feed for accessing data (e.g., one or morewebsites) to use for automatically generating a media content item (alsoreferred to herein as a “creative”). In other examples, other locationinformation may be provided for the source data.

The source data may be a webpage (e.g., an article or productinformation), in one example. The source data may comprise structuredand/or unstructured data, as described above.

In one example, the location information is provided via a mediapublishing application via a client device 110. For example, a user(e.g., a creator and/or publisher of content) may access a mediapublishing application via client device 110 to create a media contentitem (also referred to herein as a “creative”). As described above, FIG.5 illustrates an example display 500 of a media publishing application.The display 500 may allow a user to create a media content item fromscratch by providing an option 504 to add media and an option to usecreative tools 506. The media publishing application may also allow auser to have a media content item to be automatically generated based ona website, or an RSS or Atom feed, that has already been created by theuser, via a web import option 502.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example display 600 of the media publishingapplication after a user has selected the web import option 502. Indisplay 600, an input field 602 is provided for a user to enter a URL(in this example) to import content from a website (e.g., source data).In another example, the user can enter an RSS or Atom feed to importcontent from a plurality of websites (e.g., source data) listed in theRSS or Atom feed. The user may then start the process of importing datafrom the website by selecting the import option 604. The URL or RSS/Atomfeed is then sent by the client device 110 to the server system. In oneexample, a publisher identifier (e.g., Org Id in operation 404 of FIG.4) is also provided to the server system. For example, the computingdevice may also send a publisher identifier along with the URL orRSS/Atom to the server system. In another example, the server systemdetermines the publisher identifier based on the URL, RSS/Atom feed, orother data (e.g., user data, login information, etc.) provided via thepublisher interface 202.

Returning to FIG. 9, in operation 904, the server system determines aset of selectors associated with the publisher identifier, as explainedabove with respect to operation 304 of FIG. 3 and operations 406 and 408of FIG. 4.

The server system next processes each of the location data in the listof location data. Thus, for each location data in the list of locationdata, the server system performs operations 906-912.

In operation 906, the server system accesses the source data using thelocation data. For example, the server system accesses the source datausing a URL listed in the RSS or Atom feed to access the webpageassociated with the URL.

In operation 908, the server system extracts specified content for eachselector from the source data, as explained above for operation 308 ofFIG. 3 and operation 410 of FIG. 4.

In operation 910, the server system populates a template using thespecified content of the selectors, as described above for operation 310of FIG. 3, 412-424 of FIG. 4, and FIG. 7. In operation 912, the serversystem generates a media content item from the populated template, asdescribed above for operation 312 of FIG. 3. In operation 914, theserver system checks to see whether there is any further location datain the list of location data that has not yet been processed. If thereis more location data (yes), the server system returns to operation 906.If there is no more location data (no), the server system finishesprocessing the source data at operation 916.

In one example, the server system generates a media collectioncomprising the media content items that were generated from theplurality of source data (based on the list of location data for theplurality of source data). The media content items and/or the mediacollection can be stored in one or more databases 120 and/or 210. Theserver system can then publish the generated media collection comprisingthe generated media content items to a content sharing platform, asdescribed above for publishing a media content item.

In another example, the server system can cause the display of thegenerated media collection comprising the generated media content itemson a computing device. As described above, in one example, the savedmedia content item or media collection is provided to the automaticmedia content creation service 206, as shown in operation 428 of FIG. 4,which provides the media content item to the publisher interface 202, asshown in operation 430. In this way the server system causes the mediacontent item to be displayed on a client device 110. This is also shownand described above with respect to FIG. 8. In this way a user can editone or more of the media content items in the media collection, deleteone or more of the media content items from the media collections, addone or more new media content items, add different media content itemsusing the publisher media library, use one or more different templatesfor a media content item, and so forth.

As explained above, once any edits have been made to one or more mediacontent items in the media collection, the computing device (e.g.,client device 110) sends the final media content items of the mediacollection to the server system. The server system saves the final mediacontent items. For example, the server system receives updated contentfor at least one region of at least one generated media content itemfrom the computing device and stores the updated content. In anotherexample, no updates are made to the media content items and thegenerated media content items are stored as they were generated by theserver system. In yet another example, the media content items are notdisplayed on a client device but instead are automatically published asa media collection to a content sharing platform once the mediacollection is generated.

In one example, a second template can be selected to generate a secondmedia content item or to replace a generated media content item using afirst template. The server system may determine the second template(e.g., receive a selection of a second template), populate each regionof the second template using specified content for the selectorassociated with each region of the template, as described above. Theserver system can use updated content for the at least one region topopulate the at least one region of the second template. The serversystem can generate a second media content item from the populatedsecond template and cause display of the generated second media contentitem on the computing device, as explained above. In this way, changesmade to one template can be used to populate a second template so that auser does not need to make the change again, as explained above.

The server system can publish the generated media collection to acontent sharing platform, as explained above.

Some example embodiments allow for scheduling when new media collectionsshould be generated by specifying a time interval (e.g., between one andten days) and a time interval (e.g., midnight in the publisher's timezone) for generating new media collections. For example, a user (e.g.,associated with a publisher identifier) could schedule, via a publisherinterface 202 on his client device 110, how often he would like newmedia collections generated based on a specified RSS or Atom feed. Forexample, a publisher may typically update an RSS or Atom feed once aday. The publisher can specify that a new media collection be createdonce a day and optionally the time of day (e.g., the default could bemidnight the publisher's time zone). The client device 110 would sendthe scheduling information to the server system and the server systemwould store the information. The new media collection would be triggeredaccording to the scheduling information. Once it is triggered, theserver system accesses the RSS or Atom feed, determines if any contentlisted in the RSS or Atom feed has been previously processed (and thus,is part of a previous media collection), and then generates a new mediacollection based on the new source content in the RSS or Atom feed, asexplained above. The new media collection can be automatically publishedor provided to a computing device for editing, as also described above.

In another example, the server system can periodically (e.g., hourly)parse the RSS or Atom feed content for any new content for generating anew media content item or a new media collection. If the server systemdetermines there is new content in the RSS or Atom feed, the serversystem can generate one or more new media content items or a new mediacollection based on the new content in the RSS or Atom feed. The newmedia collection can be automatically published or provided to acomputing device for editing, as also described above.

The media content items may be generated based on an automaticallydetermined template or templates, a default template set by the serversystem, or a default template identifier supplied by the publisher.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram 1000 illustrating a software architecture1002, which can be installed on any one or more of the devices describedabove. For example, in various embodiments, client devices 110, serversystems 108, and servers 102, 112, 116, 118, 122, 124 and 128 may beimplemented using some or all of the elements of the softwarearchitecture 1002. FIG. 10 is merely a non-limiting example of asoftware architecture, and it will be appreciated that many otherarchitectures can be implemented to facilitate the functionalitydescribed herein. In various embodiments, the software architecture 1002is implemented by hardware such as machine 1100 of FIG. 11 that includesprocessors 1110, memory 1130, and I/O components 1150. In this example,the software architecture 1002 can be conceptualized as a stack oflayers where each layer may provide a particular functionality. Forexample, the software architecture 1002 includes layers such as anoperating system 1004, libraries 1006, frameworks 1008, and applications1010. Operationally, the applications 1010 invoke API calls 1012 throughthe software stack and receive messages 1014 in response to the APIcalls 1012, consistent with some embodiments.

In various implementations, the operating system 1004 manages hardwareresources and provides common services. The operating system 1004includes, for example, a kernel 1020, services 1022, and drivers 1024.The kernel 1020 acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware andthe other software layers, consistent with some embodiments. Forexample, the kernel 1020 provides memory management, processormanagement (e.g., scheduling), component management, networking, andsecurity settings, among other functionality. The services 1022 canprovide other common services for the other software layers. The drivers1024 are responsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlyinghardware, according to some embodiments. For instance, the drivers 1024can include display drivers, camera drivers, BLUETOOTH® or BLUETOOTH®Low Energy drivers, flash memory drivers, serial communication drivers(e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) drivers), WI-FI® drivers, audiodrivers, power management drivers, and so forth.

In some embodiments, the libraries 1006 provide a low-level commoninfrastructure utilized by the applications 1010. The libraries 1006 caninclude system libraries 1030 (e.g., C standard library) that canprovide functions such as memory allocation functions, stringmanipulation functions, mathematic functions, and the like. In addition,the libraries 1006 can include API libraries 1032 such as medialibraries (e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation ofvarious media formats such as Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG4),Advanced Video Coding (H.264 or AVC), Moving Picture Experts GroupLayer-3 (MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR)audio codec, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or JPG), or PortableNetwork Graphics (PNG)), graphics libraries (e.g., an OpenGL frameworkused to render in two dimensions (2D) and in three dimensions (3D)graphic content on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite toprovide various relational database functions), web libraries (e.g.,WebKit to provide web browsing functionality), and the like. Thelibraries 1006 can also include a wide variety of other libraries 1034to provide many other APIs to the applications 1010.

The frameworks 1008 provide a high-level common infrastructure that canbe utilized by the applications 1010, according to some embodiments. Forexample, the frameworks 1008 provide various graphic user interface(GUI) functions, high-level resource management, high-level locationservices, and so forth. The frameworks 1008 can provide a broad spectrumof other APIs that can be utilized by the applications 1010, some ofwhich may be specific to a particular operating system 1004 or platform.

In an example embodiment, the applications 1010 include a homeapplication 1050, a contacts application 1052, a browser application1054, a book reader application 1056, a location application 1058, amedia application 1060, a messaging application 1062, a game application1064, and a broad assortment of other applications such as a third-partyapplication 1066. According to some embodiments, the applications 1010are programs that execute functions defined in the programs. Variousprogramming languages can be employed to create one or more of theapplications 1010, structured in a variety of manners, such asobject-oriented programming languages (e.g., Objective-C, Java, or C++)or procedural programming languages (e.g., C or assembly language). In aspecific example, the third-party application 1066 (e.g., an applicationdeveloped using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software development kit (SDK) byan entity other than the vendor of the particular platform) may bemobile software running on a mobile operating system such as IOS™ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or another mobile operating system. In thisexample, the third-party application 1066 can invoke the API calls 1012provided by the operating system 1004 to facilitate functionalitydescribed herein.

Some embodiments may particularly include a media publishing application1067. In certain embodiments, this may be a standalone application thatoperates to manage communications with a server system such asthird-party servers or the server system 108. In other embodiments, thisfunctionality may be integrated with another application (e.g.,messaging application 1062). The media publishing application 1067 mayrequest and display various data related to messaging, media content,media collections, media overlays, user profiles, publisher profiles,and so forth, and may provide the capability for a user to input datarelated to the system via a touch interface, via a keyboard, or using acamera device of the machine 1100, communication with a server systemvia I/O components 1150, and receipt and storage of object data inmemory 1130. Presentation of information and user inputs associated withthe information may be managed by the media content application 1067using different frameworks 1008, library 1006 elements, or operatingsystem 1004 elements operating on the machine 1100.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 1100,according to some embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.Specifically, FIG. 11 shows a diagrammatic representation of the machine1100 in the example form of a computer system, within which instructions1116 (e.g., software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, orother executable code) for causing the machine 1100 to perform any oneor more of the methodologies discussed herein can be executed. Inalternative embodiments, the machine 1100 operates as a standalonedevice or can be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines. In anetworked deployment, the machine 1100 may operate in the capacity of aserver machine or system 108, 112, 116, 118, 122, 124, 128 and the like,or a client device 110 in a server-client network environment, or as apeer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine 1100 can comprise, but not be limited to, a server computer, aclient computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet computer, a laptopcomputer, a netbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), anentertainment media system, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, amobile device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch), a smart homedevice (e.g., a smart appliance), other smart devices, a web appliance,a network router, a network switch, a network bridge, or any machinecapable of executing the instructions 1116, sequentially or otherwise,that specify actions to be taken by the machine 1100. Further, whileonly a single machine 1100 is illustrated, the term “machine” shall alsobe taken to include a collection of machines 1100 that individually orjointly execute the instructions 1116 to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

In various embodiments, the machine 1100 comprises processors 1110,memory 1130, and I/O components 1150, which can be configured tocommunicate with each other via a bus 1102. In an example embodiment,the processors 1110 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor,or any suitable combination thereof) include, for example, a processor1112 and a processor 1114 that may execute the instructions 1116. Theterm “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors 1110 thatmay comprise two or more independent processors 1112, 1114 (alsoreferred to as “cores”) that can execute instructions 1116contemporaneously. Although FIG. 11 shows multiple processors 1110, themachine 1100 may include a single processor 1110 with a single core, asingle processor 1110 with multiple cores (e.g., a multi-core processor1110), multiple processors 1112, 1114 with a single core, multipleprocessors 1112, 1114 with multiple cores, or any combination thereof.

The memory 1130 comprises a main memory 1132, a static memory 1134, anda storage unit 1136 accessible to the processors 1110 via the bus 1102,according to some embodiments. The storage unit 1136 can include amachine-readable medium 1118 on which are stored the instructions 1116embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedherein. The instructions 1116 can also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within the main memory 1132, within the static memory 1134,within at least one of the processors 1110 (e.g., within the processor'scache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, during executionthereof by the machine 1100. Accordingly, in various embodiments, themain memory 1132, the static memory 1134, and the processors 1110 areconsidered machine-readable media 1118.

As used herein, the term “memory” refers to a machine-readable medium1118 able to store data temporarily or permanently and may be taken toinclude, but not be limited to, random-access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), buffer memory, flash memory, and cache memory. While themachine-readable medium 1118 is shown, in an example embodiment, to be asingle medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken toinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, or associated caches and servers) able to storethe instructions 1116. The term “machine-readable medium” shall also betaken to include any medium, or combination of multiple media, that iscapable of storing instructions (e.g., instructions 1116) for executionby a machine (e.g., machine 1100), such that the instructions 1116, whenexecuted by one or more processors of the machine 1100 (e.g., processors1110), cause the machine 1100 to perform any one or more of themethodologies described herein. Accordingly, a “machine-readable medium”refers to a single storage apparatus or device, as well as “cloud-based”storage systems or storage networks that include multiple storageapparatus or devices. The term “machine-readable medium” shallaccordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, one or more datarepositories in the form of a solid-state memory (e.g., flash memory),an optical medium, a magnetic medium, other non-volatile memory (e.g.,erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM)), or any suitablecombination thereof. The term “machine-readable medium” specificallyexcludes non-statutory signals per se.

The I/O components 1150 include a wide variety of components to receiveinput, provide output, produce output, transmit information, exchangeinformation, capture measurements, and so on. In general, it will beappreciated that the I/O components 1150 can include many othercomponents that are not shown in FIG. 11. The I/O components 1150 aregrouped according to functionality merely for simplifying the followingdiscussion, and the grouping is in no way limiting. In various exampleembodiments, the I/O components 1150 include output components 1152 andinput components 1154. The output components 1152 include visualcomponents (e.g., a display such as a plasma display panel (PDP), alight emitting diode (LED) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), aprojector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), acoustic components (e.g.,speakers), haptic components (e.g., a vibratory motor), other signalgenerators, and so forth. The input components 1154 include alphanumericinput components (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receivealphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumericinput components), point-based input components (e.g., a mouse, atouchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointinginstruments), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touchscreen that provides location and force of touches or touch gestures, orother tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., amicrophone), and the like.

In some further example embodiments, the I/O components 1150 includebiometric components 1156, motion components 1158, environmentalcomponents 1160, or position components 1162, among a wide array ofother components. For example, the biometric components 1156 includecomponents to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facialexpressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measurebiosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voiceidentification, retinal identification, facial identification,fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram basedidentification), and the like. The motion components 1158 includeacceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensorcomponents, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.The environmental components 1160 include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensor components(e.g., machine olfaction detection sensors, gas detection sensors todetect concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or to measurepollutants in the atmosphere), or other components that may provideindications, measurements, or signals corresponding to a surroundingphysical environment. The position components 1162 include locationsensor components (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receivercomponent), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometersthat detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived),orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.

Communication can be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.The I/O components 1150 may include communication components 1164operable to couple the machine 1100 to a network 1180 or devices 1170via a coupling 1182 and a coupling 1172, respectively. For example, thecommunication components 1164 include a network interface component oranother suitable device to interface with the network 1180. In furtherexamples, communication components 1164 include wired communicationcomponents, wireless communication components, cellular communicationcomponents, near field communication (NFC) components, BLUETOOTH®components (e.g., BLUETOOTH® Low Energy), WI-FI® components, and othercommunication components to provide communication via other modalities.The devices 1170 may be another machine 1100 or any of a wide variety ofperipheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a UniversalSerial Bus (USB)).

Moreover, in some embodiments, the communication components 1164 detectidentifiers or include components operable to detect identifiers. Forexample, the communication components 1164 include radio frequencyidentification (RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detectioncomponents, optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detecta one-dimensional bar codes such as a Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode, multi-dimensional bar codes such as a Quick Response (QR) code,Aztec Code, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code,Uniform Commercial Code Reduced Space Symbology (UCC RSS)-2D bar codes,and other optical codes), acoustic detection components (e.g.,microphones to identify tagged audio signals), or any suitablecombination thereof. In addition, a variety of information can bederived via the communication components 1164, such as location viaInternet Protocol (IP) geolocation, location via WI-FI® signaltriangulation, location via detecting a BLUETOOTH® or NFC beacon signalthat may indicate a particular location, and so forth.

In various example embodiments, one or more portions of the network 1180can be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), the Internet, a portion of the Internet, a portion of the publicswitched telephone network (PSTN), a plain old telephone service (POTS)network, a cellular telephone network, a wireless network, a WI-FI®network, another type of network, or a combination of two or more suchnetworks. For example, the network 1180 or a portion of the network 1180may include a wireless or cellular network, and the coupling 1182 may bea Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, a Global System forMobile communications (GSM) connection, or another type of cellular orwireless coupling. In this example, the coupling 1182 can implement anyof a variety of types of data transfer technology, such as SingleCarrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-Data Optimized(EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology,Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology, thirdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourth generationwireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Worldwide Interoperability forMicrowave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, othersdefined by various standard-setting organizations, other long rangeprotocols, or other data transfer technology.

In example embodiments, the instructions 1116 are transmitted orreceived over the network 1180 using a transmission medium via a networkinterface device (e.g., a network interface component included in thecommunication components 1164) and utilizing any one of a number ofwell-known transfer protocols (e.g., Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP)). Similarly, in other example embodiments, the instructions 1116are transmitted or received using a transmission medium via the coupling1172 (e.g., a peer-to-peer coupling) to the devices 1170. The term“transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangible mediumthat is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying the instructions 1116for execution by the machine 1100, and includes digital or analogcommunications signals or other intangible media to facilitatecommunication of such software.

Furthermore, the machine-readable medium 1118 is non-transitory (inother words, not having any transitory signals) in that it does notembody a propagating signal. However, labeling the machine-readablemedium 1118 “non-transitory” should not be construed to mean that themedium is incapable of movement; the machine-readable medium 1118 shouldbe considered as being transportable from one physical location toanother. Additionally, since the machine-readable medium 1118 istangible, the machine-readable medium 1118 may be considered to be amachine-readable device.

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Although an overview of the inventive subject matter has been describedwith reference to specific example embodiments, various modificationsand changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader scope of embodiments of the present disclosure.

The embodiments illustrated herein are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed.Other embodiments may be used and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. The Detailed Description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along withthe full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

As used herein, the term “or” may be construed in either an inclusive orexclusive sense. Moreover, plural instances may be provided forresources, operations, or structures described herein as a singleinstance. Additionally, boundaries between various resources,operations, modules, engines, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in a context of specificillustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality areenvisioned and may fall within a scope of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In general, structures and functionality presentedas separate resources in the example configurations may be implementedas a combined structure or resource. Similarly, structures andfunctionality presented as a single resource may be implemented asseparate resources. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements fall within a scope of embodiments of thepresent disclosure as represented by the appended claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a serversystem, location information for source data associated with a publisheridentifier; determining, by the server system, a set of selectorsassociated with the publisher identifier, each selector comprisingspecified content to extract from the source data and one or more rulesfor extracting the specified content; accessing, by the server system,the source data using the location information; extracting, by theserver system, from the source data, specified content for each selectorof at least a subset of the set of selectors based on the one or morerules specified in each selector of the at least subset of the set ofselectors; retrieving, by the server system, a plurality of templatesfor generating a media content item; determining, by the server system,a first template to use to generate the media content item, the firsttemplate comprising regions corresponding to one or more selectors;populating, by the server system, each region of the first templateusing specified content for the corresponding selector; generating, bythe server system, the media content item from the populated firsttemplate; and causing display of the generated media content item on acomputing device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the locationinformation is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the source data isassociated with a web page.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein extractingspecified content comprises parsing the web page to determine thespecified content using the one or more rules specified in the selector.4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first template to useto generate the media content item is based on receiving a selection ofthe first template from the plurality of templates.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein determining the first template to use to generate themedia content item comprises determining that the first templatecomprises selectors corresponding to specified content in the subset ofthe set of selectors.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving updated content for at least one region of the generated mediacontent item; storing the updated content for the at least one region ofthe generated media content item; receiving a selection of a secondtemplate to use to generate a second media content item, the secondtemplate comprising regions corresponding to the one or more selectors;populating each region of the second template using specified contentfor the corresponding selector and the updated content for the at leastone region of the generated media content item; generating a secondmedia content item from the populated second template; and causingdisplay of the generated second media content item on the computingdevice.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing thegenerated media content item to a content sharing platform.
 8. A systemcomprising: a memory that stores instructions; and one or moreprocessors configured by the instructions to perform operationscomprising: receiving location information for source data associatedwith a publisher identifier; determining a set of selectors associatedwith the publisher identifier, each selector comprising specifiedcontent to extract from the source data and one or more rules forextracting the specified content; accessing the source data using thelocation information; extracting from the source data, specified contentfor each selector of at least a subset of the set of selectors based onthe one or more rules specified in each selector of the at least subsetof the set of selectors; retrieving a plurality of templates forgenerating a media content item; determining a first template to use togenerate the media content item, the first template comprising regionscorresponding to one or more selectors; populating each region of thefirst template using specified content for the corresponding selector;generating the media content item from the populated first template; andcausing display of the generated media content item on a computingdevice.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information is aUniform Resource Locator (URL) and the source data is associated with aweb page.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein extracting specifiedcontent comprises parsing the web page to determine the specifiedcontent using the one or more rules specified in the selector.
 11. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein determining the first template to use togenerate the media content item is based on receiving a selection of thefirst template from the plurality of templates.
 12. The system of claim8, wherein determining the first template to use to generate the mediacontent item comprises determining that the first template comprisesselectors corresponding to specified content in the subset of the set ofselectors.
 13. The system of claim 8, the operations further comprising:receiving updated content for at least one region of the generated mediacontent item; storing the updated content for the at least one region ofthe generated media content item; receiving a selection of a secondtemplate to use to generate a second media content item, the secondtemplate comprising regions corresponding to the one or more selectors;populating each region of the second template using specified contentfor the corresponding selector and the updated content for the at leastone region of the generated media content item; generating a secondmedia content item from the populated second template; and causingdisplay of the generated second media content item on the computingdevice.
 14. The system of claim 8, the operations further comprisingpublishing the generated media content item to a content sharingplatform.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprisinginstructions stored thereon that are executable by at least oneprocessor to cause a computing device to perform operations comprising:receiving location information for source data associated with apublisher identifier; determining a set of selectors associated with thepublisher identifier, each selector comprising specified content toextract from the source data and one or more rules for extracting thespecified content; accessing the source data using the locationinformation; extracting from the source data, specified content for eachselector of at least a subset of the set of selectors based on the oneor more rules specified in each selector of the at least subset of theset of selectors; retrieving a plurality of templates for generating amedia content item; determining a first template to use to generate themedia content item, the first template comprising regions correspondingto one or more selectors; populating each region of the first templateusing specified content for the corresponding selector; generating themedia content item from the populated first template; and causingdisplay of the generated media content item on a computing device. 16.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein thelocation information is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the sourcedata is associated with a web page and wherein extracting specifiedcontent comprises parsing the web page to determine the specifiedcontent using the one or more rules specified in the selector.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein determiningthe first template to use to generate a media content item is based onreceiving a selection of the first template from the plurality oftemplates.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15,wherein determining the first template to use to generate a mediacontent item comprises determining that the first template comprisesselectors corresponding to specified content in the subset of the set ofselectors.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15,the operations further comprising: receiving updated content for atleast one region of the generated media content item; storing theupdated content for the at least one region of the generated mediacontent item; receiving a selection of a second template to use togenerate a second media content item, the second template comprisingregions corresponding to the one or more selectors; populating eachregion of the second template using specified content for thecorresponding selector and the updated content for the at least oneregion of the generated media content item; generating a second mediacontent item from the populated second template; and causing display ofthe generated second media content item on the computing device.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operationsfurther comprising publishing the generated media content item to acontent sharing platform.